Cambridge, Mass., August 12, 2003 - Endeca, the only provider of Guided Navigation and advanced search solutions, announced today at eTail 2003 East, that Lenox.com, the Internet site of America's only full-line tabletop, collectible and giftware manufacturer, has switched from EasyAsk's Search Advisor to Endeca InFront with Guided Navigation. The company chose Endeca to deliver the most effective, accurate integrated search and navigation experience available for the new version of Lenox.com, scheduled to launch this fall.
Lenox, best known for its china, is also a leading manufacturer, direct marketer and retailer of crystal stemware, flatware, gifts and collectibles. The company designed the new Lenox.com to be the customer's comprehensive online resource on Lenox, from gift-giving to product care, with expert tips on bridal registry, entertaining, and celebrating life’s occasions. Endeca InFront with Guided Navigation will allow users to search as well as browse and refine their results, leading them to the best choices based on what they are looking for. This rich navigation experience integrated with advanced search will be complemented with Endeca InFront's dynamic merchandising and will allow Lenox to expose customers to a much wider variety of products, thereby driving more revenue for the brand.
"Our objective in launching the new version of Lenox.com is to enable our consumers to experience the breadth of our brand and product offering on their own terms. Search is a critical enabling factor, allowing site visitors to accomplish their objectives," said Ken Bausch, vice president of Interactive and Database Marketing for Lenox. "Our new site will establish a comprehensive online presence for the Lenox brand, combining the functionality of three previous sites. The greater complexity of the new Lenox.com required a new approach to search, and we chose Endeca because of the proven power and functionality of Guided Navigation."
Endeca InFront customers are able to use Guided Navigation to power both searching and browsing of their online store, as well as offer dynamic merchandising in context to highlight products and encourage more purchases.
With the added help of the Endeca Studio tool available with Endeca InFront, Lenox.com site managers will be able to make adjustments to merchandising and product promotions, allowing the company to be more proactive in meeting the needs of its customers. Endeca InFront will also provide highly detailed information on the search and navigation paths users follow. As a result, Lenox will have information it needs to increase conversion rates through merchandising of relevant items based upon related navigation paths selected by users. This advanced site control capability will allow the company to further optimize its important relationships with its customers.
"Lenox.com's selection of InFront and Guided Navigation is an important win for Endeca because it emphasizes the functionality and distinctions that make Guided Navigation unparalleled in exposing the richness of online data and providing users with a dramatically improved online buying experience," said Jim Baum, president and COO of Endeca. We are pleased that Lenox.com has chosen Endeca to deliver top-notch, performance-driven solutions that meet both company and customer needs."
Endeca’s Guided Navigation with advanced search solutions help businesses across a variety of sectors including retail, financial services, manufacturing, information publishing and business-to-business with applications that address the information overload problems associated with content, catalog and enterprise information access and retrieval. Endeca solutions are built on innovative technology that makes it possible for the first time to offer Guided Navigation and advanced search on structured and unstructured information with high performance, and low total cost of ownership, even at massive scale.
About Endeca
Endeca offers innovative advanced search and Guided Navigation information delivery solutions for companies who need to integrate, discover, and navigate enterprise data to solve the business problems associated with information overload. Endeca technology is already at work for leading retail, financial services and business-to-business companies like Barnes & Noble, Eddie Bauer, and Arrow Electronics. Endeca solutions empower users to explore and discover relevant relationships in data and find accurate and precise results with unprecedented speed. Patent-pending algorithms provide a scalable, Web-based infrastructure for data exploration, leading to highly relevant and meaningful search results every time. This technology can be applied across a wide-range of enterprise and customer applications including Customer Relationship Management (CRM) analytics, catalogs, directories, search and portal integration. Endeca is a privately held company headquartered in Cambridge, MA and is backed by leading venture capital firms including Ampersand Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Venrock Associates. Endeca is an IBM Advanced Business Partner and is a preferred provider of IBM’s WebSphere Commerce Group. For more information, please visit www.endeca.com or email us at info@endeca.com.
About Lenox
Lenox, the gift company, based in Lawrenceville, N.J., is the only full-line American tabletop and giftware manufacturer. Since 1889, Lenox has created fine products for the home and gifts for every occasion.